Bon Air shopping center evacuated after bank robbery, bomb threat

A large section of Greenbrae's Bon Air shopping center was evacuated Saturday afternoon after a man robbed the Wells Fargo Bank, saying he'd left a package of plastic explosives in the building.

The suspect left the bank on foot as employees set off alarms to call police. Officers later arrested a man who was reportedly identified by bank employees as the robber. They were at a Central Marin Police Authority command post set up in an alley behind the shopping center.

Bank customer Ira Sharlits said the suspect was a strange looking man wearing a large, floppy hat that partially obscured his face and a white, three-quarter length coat.

"I was just sitting there and didn't know what happened," he said. "He walked out and I was glad he was gone. Then the bank officers told us to get out."

Authorities evacuated businesses around the bank and cordoned off a large area of the parking lot at about 2:30 p.m., stranding many shopping center customers who were prevented by officers from returning to their cars. Police, offering to call them taxis, said it would be at least three hours before a bomb squad arrived from Berkeley to search the bank for the alleged explosives.

McKell Smith of San Francisco was one of those stranded.

"I picked the wrong day to come to this shopping center," he said.

He was having lunch with his young son at Roadrunner Burrito when the evacuation began.

"One of the police officers said there was a robbery in process and a bomb threat associated with it," he said. "Everyone wants to rule the world with fear."

Jennifer Zukerkorn of Tiburon was shopping in one of the stores and had her purchases on the counter when officers told her and other customers to evacuate the area. Her car was also in the part of the parking lot that had been cordoned off.

"This is Marin on a Saturday afternoon," she said. "Things like this don't happen here."

At about 5:50 p.m., officers lifted the evacuation order, allowing business to reopen and customers to return to their cars.